Lemons organized a meeting Thursday night at the Abita Springs Town Hall that included presentations from representatives from the Louisiana Oil & Gas Association, the state Department of Natural Resources, the state Department of Environmental Quality, the Gulf Restoration Network and the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation. The mayor said about 500 citizens attended. A vast majority of them were against the proposed drilling operation.

"I was on the fence about it," Lemons said of the proposal by Helis Oil & Gas LLC. "But I've done enough research and heard from enough people to take a position on this."

Helis wants to drill the well just north of Interstate 12 and about a mile east of Louisiana 1088 and use the hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," method to extract oil and gas

Greg Lemons

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Lemons said he believes fracking is relatively safe, but said there have been cases where environmental damage has resulted from such drilling operations.

"If something happened, Abita would be done," Lemons said, noting that the town was built on its reputation for clean water and air.

Supporters of the fracking operation say the extraction method is very common and has been used safely for decades in more than 1 million wells in the United States. They said Hellis has an excellent track record with fracking.